Home Forums Discussions Feedback and Recommendations National AC Conference in Branson Missouri

Following a visit with Jon just now, the Branson AC Conference is officially scheduled for June 20, 21 & 22 at the Chateau on the Lake in Branson Missouri. Please check out
http://www.chateauonthelake.com/
Jon will attend along with his family and honor us with the keynote address. We have reserved a meeting room for all day Friday and Saturday and Sunday morning. We will likely have four hour of talks on Friday and Saturday morning and two hours Sunday morning. A breakfast buffet will be served each day at the meeting. We will have the option of afternoon optional breakout sessions.
We have reserved a block of 30 rooms at the Chateau (we have negotiated a discount for AC conference attendees); we may be able to reserve more if we have a large response, but this is a busy time of the year for weddings and the Chateau is very popular. Additionally, Branson has over 140 hotels and multiple condo rentals and lodging for every budget should be available
Jon is going to announce the conference to his 1800 paid AC Users soon and so if you definitely want a room at the Chateau, please e-mail me at jimblaine@aol.com as soon as you can.
Branson is a 40 minute drive from the Springfield Airport and a two and a half hour drive from the Tulsa airport. St. Louis and KC airports are a three hour drive.
Jon and the AC staff will cover up to four of the ten hours of talks and the rest is up to the AC Users. Brian and I would like to have volunteers for a small agenda committee to help with the other six hours and optional breakout sessions. We will apply to the Greene County Medical Society for Category I CME credit for the conference.
Should be a lot of fun.
Best,
Jim
.

From previous posts, it sounds like Bert and Adam may be willing to help with setting the agenda and working on content for the program. We need their technical know-how. What do you say, fellas?

If anyone has any topics they would like to see covered at the conference, feel free to post or PM me! Remember, even if you can't come, there will be ideas shared that attendees can pass along to the folks on the User Board.

We have Bert, Brian, Leslie, Adam and me so far on our agenda committee.
Jim

So obviously you have opted to use the Chateau instead of the Pointe Royale. Those condos and their rates sounded pretty good at the Pointe. Nothing like separate bedrooms for families with different sleep schedules. None the less, what a nice, big step up Jim; Thanks. Bert and I were always talking about buttered lobsters and Maine, but that never seemed to go anywhere. You on the other hand have actually done it. Cool, very cool.

I saw the posted rates on the Chateau's website and they start to climb in June, what kind of rates were you able to get for the group by chance? It seems that the Chateau has the childcare, but I didn't see anything about that at the Pointe, did I miss that? Anybody else still thinking about lodging at the Pointe while joining the group by day at the Chateau?

Hi Paul,
Barb and I went to Branson and visited the Pointe Royale, Big Cedar Lodge, Wyndham Resort and the Chateau.
Before we did a direct comparison, the Pointe Royale looked like the best bang for the buck, but on visiting the sites in the same day, the Chateau blew everything else away.
I think that I would suggest the Wyndham Resort over the Pointe Royale. The Wyndham's rooms are nicer and the outside pools are nice. There are many other condo complexes in Branson as well and would be perfectly suited for families. As you mentioned, you can then just drive a mile or so to the Chateau for the meetings. The condos generally have a fairly sparse list of services like child care, but I could research the availability of child care services in Branson for you.
We have negotiated an approximate 10% discount for our group rooms at the Chateau. If you send me an e-mail (jimblaine@aol.com) I will send you the proposal they sent to us.
Best,
Jim

Jon just forwarded 13 survey responses for the conference in Branson in June; they range from "possibly" to "definitely".
We only have a total of 30 rooms at the Chateau reserved so please e-mail me at jimblaine@aol.com if you would like to stay at the Chateau. We have Bert, Adam, Brian, Leslie, Jon and his staff already reserved for the Chateau. There are over 140 hotels and dozens of condos available in Branson, but the Chateau is the nicest; we have negotiated a 10% room discount for AC attendees. After we sign the contract next Monday, we will send the reservation codes to those who have indicated they want a Chateau room and you will make your own reservation (credit card etc.).
Brian and I will research the best condo accomodations and report in a week or so.
To keep it simple, the conference fee will be $100 per person attending and every dime will be spent on meeting room rental, buffet breakfasts and, if we have any left over, a social gathering. We will be offering at least 10 hours of Cat. I CME.
Jim

Jon has now forwarded 24 completed surveys for our conference.
As I mentioned earlier we only have 30 rooms at the Chateau reserved and may not be able to reserve more if we need them due to the popularity of the Chateau at this time of the year.
Please send me an e-mail jimblaine@aol.com if you want to reserve a Chateau room (11 have already been spoken for).
Also e-mail me if you would like more info on the conference itself, room rates etc.
There will be plenty of other hotels and condos available in Branson; Brian and I plan to research them for you in a week or so and will report our recommendations to you.
Best,
Jim

Good job!! This is getting exciting. ROAD TRIP!!!

Leslie

Dear Amazing Charts Users,

Our Amazing Charts National Conference has attracted a lot of attention and stimulated several questions.
The conference will be held at the Chateau on the Lake in Branson Missouri on June 20, 21 and 22 (plan to arrive June 19).
The tuition will be $100 for each attendee; every dime will be spent on meeting room fees, daily buffet breakfasts for the attendees and for a social event if we have funds left over.
The meeting times will be 8 a.m. to noon on Friday and Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sunday.
We plan to have optional breakout sessions in the afternoon.
Jon and his staff will present four hours of talks that will include Jon's Keynote Address.
The remaining six hours of talks and breakout sessions will be the responsibility of the Agenda Committee (currently comprised of Brian, Bert, Leslie, Adam and me). The Agenda Committee will be appreciative for your thoughts on agenda content. There will be at least ten hours of Category I CME available.
The Chateau has given us rather deep discounts on rooms; please e-mail me at jimblaine@aol.com if you would like more info. We only have a total of 30 rooms reserved and it will be first come first serve (at least 11 have already been spoken for). There may be the possibility to reserve more, but this is a very popular time of the year at the Chateau and we cannot guarantee additional rooms. Once you commit to a Chateau room, we will send you a reservation code and you will complete your own reservation with the Chateau directly.
Branson has over 140 hotels and dozens of condos all within a mile or so of the Chateau. Brian and I plan to drive down to Branson in a week or so and will give you our recommendations on other hotels and condos.
This conference promises to be a lot of fun; we hope you can make it.

Best,
Jim Blaine, MD
Cell 417 830-9286

Jim and Committee,
As I just posted on another thread, I would like to suggest a CCHITT class, seminar as one of the topics, with perhaps Al doing his well thought out presentation. I was hoping and thinking that perhaps this could be done with at least Jon and perhaps one or two of his guys/gals on the dais to be part of question and answer seeing how much interest this topic has generated in the past. I for one, and I think it is safe to say, Roy as well, would really like to hear AC's persepective on all of this, and what is AC's short, medium and long terms plans for things like this. This is one that I think almost needs more question and answer time than presentation time. As much as this is not one of the happier topics, I really feel it is a needed one none the less.
Paul

Thanks for your suggestions, Paul, and thanks to everyone who is contacting me with topic ideas.

I have also asked Jon to provide us with input about things he would like to hear the Users talk about.

Please keep the ideas coming!

I am excited. should be fun. I will post a thread for users to submit requests for topics.

For those of use who can't go due to time/distance - could we consider a webcast (maybe even with attendance for Category 2 CME) ? Seems that with as many tech savvy people we could do this with GOTO meeting or something like this.

Paul>>> perhaps Al doing his well thought out presentation

Oh bummer- I just realized that from 6/16/08 thru 7/1/08 I'll be touring through Italy and the Greek isles in a long cruise vacation! Two of my kids are graduating (middle school/high school).

Are there plans on broadcasting the meetings through the internet? I can most likely log on through the ship (Splendor of the Seas)- I've been on its sister ship, and they are IT rocking!

Oh Bummer my Butt Al.... You are going to be working on your tan while aboard a cruise ship while the rest of us toil away in our offices or attend the AC conference (should be nice and all but not a Mediteranian Cruise by any means).

I've got a great suggestion (Tongue firmly placed inside cheek), We'll send our MA Shel as a stand in for us from Village Medical to the ACAC, you and your family can go there too so you can still give your great presentation; while Nancy and I use your reservations for some serious R&R OK??? lol.

You are a lucky dog to say the least. If only us starving PCP's offices could afford the lifestyle of our better to do counterparts in the other specialties. You enjoy for all of us. We'll just catch ya on the other side.

Paul-

I'll be real busy studying about the mythological "EMR Gods" of Greece so that the next time someone has a problem with, say, AC, or with CCHIT, I'll say "What would Hercules do?"


Actually, be happy about general medicine! It can get worse- you could be an oncologist. For 2008 oncologists got a 10% pay cut anyhow, which would have gone up to 20% if Congress hadn't stepped in for the temporary fix. This is on top of the year-by-year pay cuts that oncologists have had to endure for the past 10 years. I've lost 70% of my take home pay since 1997... Fortunately for me I did get in 10 years of the "good times". For 2008 I've pretty much have cut out IV chemotherapy- the AWP-20% formula simply doesn't work for me.

Anyhow, my next slideshow will be one from the ship! I'll call it "I still hate P4P/CCHIT/e-prescribing, even while cruising!" Here's me with with and kids in Alaska, 2006-

The cruise ship does have an excellent satellite setup; I'll definitely try to hook up to see some of the discussions, if they are filmed!